Do we start calling Sioux Falls City Councilwoman Stehly “Trailer Park Theresa?”

This might be tweet of the week. From Argus Leader reporter Joe Sneve:

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a City Councilperson in the big town to the South of me say they want “to see more mobile home parks in Sioux Falls” before. But, there’s a first time for everything.

37 Replies to “Do we start calling Sioux Falls City Councilwoman Stehly “Trailer Park Theresa?””

  1. PlanningStudent

    As a person in city government it seems impossible to hear someone say they want more trailer parks..

    That being said owner occupied trailer parks can provide an opportunity for upward mobility. Friends of mine who made much less bought houses before me by starting in trailer parks building equity that I didn’t while renting.

    1. Anonymous

      I have never heard of anybody building equity in a mobile home. Everyone I knew who had one ended up selling it for less than they paid for it. One owner was really pinched because the park they were in prohibited resales within the park of any home more than a few years old; it was to prevent the park from filling up with run-down homes. They had to find a buyer who was willing to move it elsewhere. Another young couple I knew were victims of a predatory sales/lending scheme that sold them a home for monthly payments that didn’t even cover the interest on the loan and required a balloon payment in five years. Trailer parks are poverty traps.

      1. Pat Powers Post author

        I’ve had an owner of a park tell me they’re a license to print money. Good investments for park owners.

        But, as for mobile homes themselves, they do not appreciate in value. The battle is to buy at the right price, be diligent in your upkeep, and keep from losing too much as they depreciate.

    2. Ron

      The price of new manufactured homes, lot rent, utilities are putting them out of reach. Many of the older units are in despair and have surpassed their life cycle. The affordable ones if maintained still make good rentals. These are being phased out. What is the OOP Max for low income dweller’s?

      1. Jerry Vogeler

        The cost of new manufactured homes has increased. So has the cost of every other type of construction. The cost per square foot of manufactured homes is still about half of site built construction.

        So long as the payment on a manufactured home (payment on home + lot rent) is about same as apartment or house rent, the manufactured home buyer is putting more money in their pocket than if they pay rent. What also makes sense is that manufactured homes are affordable housing WITHOUT government subsidy.

        At the end of the day, we do not need the government selecting the type of housing for South Dakota citizens. Housing decisions should be a free market decision. The decision is not yours or mine to make but rather the buyer. Let the free market determine the victor.

        Again, my comments do not reflect an opinion on the election.

        Jerry Vogeler
        River Bluff Custom Homes

  2. Pat Powers Post author

    I’m not slamming them, as I’ve lived in them in college, and I’ve bought and sold them for Real Estate clients.

    But that being said.. cities do a lot more managing of their locations and the problems sometimes associated with them than saying “give us more trailer parks.”

  3. Anonymous

    Wasn’t there a 2005 city plan to end homelessness by 2015? Not only did homelessness not end, it increased… well-done SF leadership, well-done.

    1. Anonymous

      If you build it, they will come. SF build homeless shelters and funded more homelessness. Stands to reason they would have more homeless.

  4. Anonymous

    It’s called affordable housing. On the economic spectrum, you might think it belongs on the “Badland’s Pawn” end near undesirable. Sounds like you’d have a signature to offer if we were to make them illegal ! If you can’t match a constructive idea, try not to just ridicule.

  5. Troy

    Three comments:

    1). Stehly is first class stupid. If a person could afford to buy or rent a mobile home, they would not be homeless.

    2). Stehly is first class lazy. It would take probably 2 hours of work to get a broad enough understanding of the homeless to know how moronic that statement is.

    3). Stehly is devoid of even a modicum of basic human decency. Homelessness is a serious problem in which even a moron would attempt to dedicate time and effort to understand the difference between the working poor (many of who live in trailer parks and as Jason said on a path to future upward mobility) and the homeless whose problems are more acute. Stehly would rather get a headline for herself even if is a distraction from moving forward on the homeless. How can one be such a despicable human and live with herself.

      1. Troy

        They made a bold unrealistic goal* without any sense of how complex the issue was. And, their gross lack of understanding was when Huether announced the City was going to cut the direct funds ($30k) to the Dudley House and divert indirect efforts (ala police patrols around the Dudley House). The difference between Not My Man Mike and Stehly is Mike is smarter.

        *. It will never be eliminated because we will have the mentally ill among us. And the acute transitional poor. And the drug addicted. The questions are we dealing with these groups appropriately and with Christian compassion.

  6. Anonymous

    As with any type of housing, trailer parks can be neat, well-kept, and aesthetically pleasing; however, there would need to be covenants in place and ordinances as well to ensure that any given park didn’t turn into a place where you wouldn’t want to set foot.

  7. Theresa Stehly

    Yes, I have lived in a Mobil Home. Many good people do.

    We were told during the presentation that we were going to be working to provide 1,000 new units of affordable housing in the next several years. I specifically asked if that included home ownership and the answer is yes.

    I then stated that we have some lovely Mobil Home areas in our community and it is an affordable option if you can get the financing. Compare a $60-80 investment versus a traditional home starting in the $130,000 range.

    We also heard that one of the major triggers for homelessness is eviction. I asked if we have funds available to help in those emergency situations. We were told that it is the county’s problem. I suggested that we should explore if the City could also partner up to assist.

    We also talked about preserving affordable housing stock in our core neighborhoods.

    Lastly, we were told by the Augustana research presenter that moving forward, our community needs to involve a more diverse group of voices on the new homeless board. There will be room for five citizen members to be involved. I will be encouraging interested citizens to apply.

    I invite you all to watch the meeting on the City website and as always, reach out to me with comments,questions and concerns.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you Troy Jones, Argus reporter Joe Sneve and all you blog watchers! God bless.

    1. mhs

      As always, you only tell part of the story. Mobile homes are among the worst investment any American can make. For starters, you rent the land it sits on, forever. Those nice parks in Arizona Tara fawns over? $400 to $700 a month lot rent, most are age-restricted to 55+ and all have the power to evict older homes. Hardly affordable housing for working families.

      Mobile homes are the only type of housing that depreciates over time, regardless of condition, which means you lose, rather than gain, equity. They are a major contributor to working families staying poor.

      Affordable housing means highly dense, heavily subsidized units. Millions of units worth of experience in the US can’t be argued with. Any other band-aid solutions you blithely toss out does a disservice to those that utilize the resource and the community. I’ve financed over a billion dollars worth of affordable housing, your ignorance of something you profess to understand is breathtaking.

      1. Jerry Vogeler

        So, if I understand your point, a person is better to rent an apartment than to own a manufactured home. Fact is, the potential to generate equity from a manufactured home is related to purchase price, location, quality of the home purchased, the installation of the home, upkeep and the financing terms. We have sold many new and used manufactured homes. Some of those have been resold. Of those that have been resold, most have been resold for at or more than the original purchase price. As the cost per square foot of construction increases, a manufactured home that is bought right and cared for properly, will be a good housing option.

        Now, are there instances where people lose money, yes. However, in our case, the few buyers who sold for less, were still better off financially, than the return they would have received from renting an apartment or a house. In other words, some return is better than no return.

        My comment has nothing to do with the election in Sioux Falls.

        Jerry Vogeler
        River Bluff Custom Homes

        1. Anonymous

          Jerry, manufactured homes are not the same as mobile homes.
          When people buy a manufactured home, they can buy the land they site it on and and have a basement under it. A manufactured home is a real house.
          A mobile home, or trailer, has no basement and is sited on land which is rented forever, or until the home gets too old and is no longer allowed to remain on site.

          1. Jerry Vogeler

            By legal definition, a manufactured home is a home with a frame that was built to the federal building code. The law became effective in 1976. The Common definition is a home that is put on concrete piers, blocked and skirted. They can be put on land owned by homeowner or on rented land. Many of the manufactured homes I referenced were placed on rented lots. The buyers turned out fine when they sold.

            A mobile home is a home that was built when there was not a building code (before 1976).

            Modular homes are also common today. These homes are built to the local building code. They are commonly placed on a crawl space or basement. The land is most often owned by the homeowner. We sell these homes as well.

            The point of my comment is NOT to change your opinion. However, many good people who decided manufactured homes fit their housing needs, were getting run thru the mud. Please be respectful of others well thought out housing decisions.

            Some buy a manufactured home because they know the total cost is less and therefore, they save on property taxes. In your calculation, take a look at how much more property tax a $500,000 homeowner pays verses a $75,000 homeowner. How much resale do you get on the extra $7,000 of annual property tax you pay?

            Again, not trying to change your opinion. Rather, hoping you will be respectful of others who have made a different housing decision.

            Kind of interesting – several of our customers are friends on Facebook. Yesterday, I saw several Thanksgiving family pictures in their manufactured home. I am glad we played a small role in that family sitting around a table and enjoying Thanksgiving.

            Jerry Vogeler
            River Bluff Custom Homes

    2. Anonymous

      Theresa, buying a mobile home is NOT an investment. An investment can be expected to increase in value over time. Mobile homes depreciate rapidly, and often leave their owners deep in debt, desperate to unload them.
      Why would you even suggest a housing option which will leave people worse off?

  8. tara volesky

    Troy need to take some happy pills and be thankful Sioux Falls has a dedicated and caring councilwoman like Theresa S.

  9. Jeff

    I’ve noticed over the years that Stehly will do anything for attention (including a terrible singing job in a TV ad for Benson Flea Market). She is typically the thorn in the side of the city council process, holding out to bring attention to herself.

  10. tara volesky

    You folks need to stop the personal attacks on Councilwoman Stehley. If you don’t agree with her stances, fine, but show some civility. Thanks, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. She is not going to please everyone, but she is dedicating her whole life to serving people.

    1. Anonymous

      Are you going to tell Trump the same thing, Tara? Does your hero show civility to those that disagree with him? Thanks for again proving you’re the biggest hypocrite that posts here.

  11. Troy


    Her lies are a violence against others and the truth. Her laziness is an offense against her duty to the public and those who depend on good well-informed decisions. “Civility” in the face of her violence against the truth is like allowing another to pummel you in the face.

  12. Troy

    I wholly agree with Jerry. Vibrant cities need multiple options for people at various stages of life and economic realities.

    However, to the subject at hand, while it is possible Sioux Falls might need more mobile home parks or not, Stehly only belies her ignorance by linking this with homelessness.

  13. Anonymous

    Let’s keep building apartments…who needs single family homes. That way the city can keep their housing unit numbers up and we taxpayers can keep providing big welfare checks to local and out of state landlords.

  14. Springer

    It was not necessary or correct to imply that all trailer parks are slums or that those who live in them are poor, fo not keep them up, etc. I started married life in a mobile home and resold it after a few years without a loss. So did my sister. My daughter lived in one during college and again resold it without a loss, as did my son during his grad school years. These various parks were all well maintained. There are varied reasons people choose this housing option, and it is a good one for responsible people most times.

  15. Anonymous

    Stehly needs to go. And go fast. Her incivility to her fellow council members and citizens that don’t agree with her is appalling. She aligns herself with people who harass and threaten the mayor and harass council candidates with threatening messages.

    She and her supporters are the epitome of the intolerant left. They refuse to listen and get angry when they don’t the get their own way.

    Hurry up springtime elections!